The kidneys perform one of the most important functions in the elimination of waste in a human body; they filter extra water and waste, thereby cleaning the blood and facilitating production of an adequate level of red blood cells. When the kidneys fail, the fluids are retained in the blood and do not circulate properly throughout the body. Thus, waste material builds up in the body seriously endangering health and wellbeing of the person.
Dialysis imitates the work of a kidney. Technology has developed two types of dialysis treatment: hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. The majority of the patients receive hemodialysis, by which the blood is circulated outside the body and cleaned inside the machine before returning to the patient. The patient's blood is drained into the dialysis machine, and a fluid called dialysate is then circulated through the machine. A thin, semi-permeable membrane separates the part that circulates the blood and the second part for the dialysate. As dialysate processes on one side of the membrane, and blood on the other, particles in waste from the bloodstream pass through the microscopic holes formed in the membrane and are washed away in the dialysate. Blood cells being too large to go through the membrane holes are returned to the body.
The other type of treatment, peritoneal dialysis, uses the patient's peritoneal membrane as a filter. The peritoneal membrane is a sack around the abdominal organs. This membrane is semi-permeable allowing water and toxic waste particles to pass through it but preventing larger blood cells to penetrate the membrane. In this type of treatment, a patient has a plastic tube catheter surgically implanted into the abdominal Wall. The patient or the patient's caregiver connects the patient's catheter tube; either to a machine that pumps dialysate fluid or the dialysate fluid is gravity fed by means of suspending a bag of dialysate fluid above the grade of the patient's catheter exit site, which slowly empties the dialysate fluid into the peritoneal cavity where it resides for a pre-determined period of time. During this dwell time the dialysate fluid absorbs the patient's excess water and toxic waste particles through the peritoneal membrane. The dialysate fluid containing the patients excess water and toxic waste is either extracted from the patient's peritoneal cavity by means of either a machine that pumps the waste material to a catch basin or a collection bag or is extracted from the patient by gravity which a collection bag that is placed below grade of the patient's catheter exit site. Similar to the hemodialysis method, the waste particles are removed with the dialysate and are discarded.
The peritoneal dialysis method has distinct advantages as it allows to significantly reduce the time needed for the dialysate to clean the blood and remove the waste. Additionally, the patient can perform the procedure in a non-hospital setting or at thousands of locations around the world. Such type of treatment may be administered by a caregiver that may not be very experienced in other types of the dialysis procedure.
Rather than performing manual peritoneal dialysis exchanges several times throughout the day, a patient can do automated peritoneal dialysis while they sleep. Automated peritoneal dialysis is done using a machine that fills the peritoneal cavity with fresh dialysis solution, also called PD fluid or PD solution, and after a specified dwell time, drains the solution with waste out of the body and then fills the peritoneal cavity with new dialysis solution. The average treatment time for automated peritoneal dialysis is 9 hours at night while the patient sleep.
When the patient performs the dialysis treatment by way of either the manual process CAPD or by use of a machine or cycler CCPD, the waste is drained into a bag or other container, which can then be emptied into a waste receptacle, such as a sink or a toilet by way of a drainage tube leading from the patient to the toilet. Often, the drainage tube end is haphazardly and loosely attached to the waste receptacle by way of an adhesive tape or other configuration. Thus, presenting an inherent risk that the drainage tube will be accidentally detached from the waste receptacle (person tripping over tube)—allowing the contents thereof including toxins to easily contaminate the surrounding area. Unfortunately for the caregiver and the patient, this can be dreadful to properly clean up and reattach the drainage tube to the waster receptacle in order to finish the dialysis process.
For the foregoing reasons, there is an extraordinary need for an improved apparatus which provides a secure drain line anchor and attachment to a waste receptacle such as a toilet, providing peace of mind throughout the already uncomfortably process of dialysis.